Raspberry-Lime Vodka Cooler

This raspberry-lime vodka cooler was my first COVID holiday cocktail creation. I developed this lovely drink on Memorial Day when my family and I were stuck inside social distancing with blazing hot temperatures outside. With its fruity, tart notes and effervescent bubbles, it was the perfect warm-weather cocktail for sipping on. This simple new favorite is now one of my go-to summer drinks because of its refreshing factor and, best part, its simple ingredient list.

Many cocktail enthusiasts don’t know some of the very principles of cocktail construction. This is useful information that will help you mix better drinks at home, and also help you get creative with inventing your own, something I encourage you to do to avoid crowds and stay healthy.

Below are what are considered basic cocktail principles first introduced by the cocktail legend David Embury. He wrote a book, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, which was published in 1948 and it remains a bible if you will of the cocktail world, even today.

The Components of a Cocktail

All cocktail ingredients can be sorted into three main categories:

• The base is generally a single spirit on which the cocktail is based, such as vodka, whisky, or rum.
• The modifier is the ingredient that you add to the base to give the drink the desired flavor and smoothness. It helps to round off the sharp burn of the spirit. Typical modifiers are vermouth, softer spirits like Fernet-Branca, fruit juices, or ingredients like eggs or cream which lend a smooth quality to the cocktail.

Special ingredients, that get added for flavoring (or color). These include ingredients like bitters or sweet syrups like Grenadine.